


Transition

by MushroomDoggo



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossroads Deals & Demons, Cute Jack Kline, Dean Winchester Not Being an Asshole, Dean Winchester is Bad at Feelings, Dean Winchester is Jack Kline's Parent, Episode: s14e20 Moriah, Gen, POV Dean Winchester, Parental Jody Mills, Post-Canon Fix-It, Protective Dean Winchester, Season/Series 05, Season/Series 13, Season/Series 14
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-30
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2020-02-10 12:55:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18660859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MushroomDoggo/pseuds/MushroomDoggo
Summary: It's been a few months since Sam jumped in the hole, since Cas left, since Dean "moved on." Life is pretty normal with Lisa and Ben. But the woman across the street is pregnant, and two strangely familiar women have been turning up to help her through the birth...For cinnamontoastcronch. This world will be continued occasionally. Spin-off works welcome, just link me them in the comments please!!





	Transition

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cinnamontoastcronch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinnamontoastcronch/gifts).



The Impala’s suspension groaned gently as I hoisted myself onto the hood.

“What are we waiting for, exactly?” Jody murmured. She, too, leaned against the car for support, arms crossed over her chest. “Don’t you have all your, uh…” She gestured to the box.

I looked down at the Altoids tin in my hands. The metal was warm from my grip. I opened it a crack and peered in at the contents once again: the knuckle bone of a black cat and a folded-up polaroid of the three of us, both laying on a bed of fine dirt.

“It’s not just about this stuff,” I said, closing the lid. “Or the plot.”

Jody and Donna glanced over in synch at the spray-painted X at the dead center of the crossroads.

“We’re not gonna have any luck til dusk,” I said.

Donna chewed her lip thoughtfully. “Because the demons won’t come out in the sunlight, yeah?”

I chuckled wryly. “Nah. A crossroads deal is damn specific, and you wanna do it at dawn or dusk for the best demons. Otherwise you end up with some kinda genie-wish scenario.”

My words disappeared into the evening air without an echo, gone the moment I stopped speaking. The sky swallowed them up, along with all of their forced friendliness and false relaxation. Jody and Donna weren’t idiots; they knew this was big. But they weren’t about to say it, and they certainly weren’t about to chicken out.

Jody looked out over the grasses. They waved in the wind with a soft swishing sound, almost mirroring the motion of Jody’s own flyaways. The sky was heavy and low, but hints of sun still shone through the clouds. 

Donna rapped two knuckles on the Impala’s window, and Jack started. “You alright in there, kiddo?”

He nodded, mouth full.

I rolled my eyes. “He’s watching Star Wars on his phone. Of course he’s fine.” 

Jack held the phone up to the window to show Donna. “I’m at the trash compactor part!”

Donna smiled. “That’s a pretty good part.”

I cleared my throat authoritatively, and Jack went back to diligently watching his distraction movie. Jody and Donna snapped to attention and looked to me for guidance.

I rolled my eyes. “Look, don’t-- don’t do that. Just listen, I wanna go over protocol.”

They nodded, still in perfect unison.

I resisted the urge to comment on their eerie symmetry. “Making deals at a crossroads isn’t some fun side gig. Some demon is going to own our souls, and it had better be for a good goddamn reason.”

Donna shuffled nervously. Jody stood firm.

“This demon’s gonna be looking for any sort of easy way out it can find, so don’t give it to him. If you feel like you wanna jump in and say something, don’t. If you feel like you wanna change the phrasing, don’t. All you two have to do is confirm that you’re riders on the deal when it asks, okay?”

They nodded, still together.

“Alright. I’m trusting you. Both of you.”

They nodded again.

I sighed and looked out across the fields. Even with the relative calm surrounding me, it was hard not to remember what that first night with Jody and Donna had been like.

Bloody, of course. But not a dangerous kind of blood, like usual. 

Loud, but not a frightening loud.

At least… not as dangerous and frightening as most things I found myself doing.

I leaned back on the windshield and folded my hands behind my head. I may have misjudged the timing on this little outing.

~~~~~

It had been something like ten months since we had tossed Sam in the hole. My world was pretty bad, but everyone else’s was… okay. Less, monsters, less chaos. Not none. Less.

And, weirdly, I know the exact moment that Lucifer made his escape. It was the dead of winter; one of those dry, cold days when you could barely stand to be inside without a jacket, let alone actually leave the building.

I was making breakfast. Eggs, bacon, hot-ass coffee. It was nice to stand over the stove and take in the warmth. Our kitchen was drafty, though, and I could feel the cold all the way through my bones. My feet felt like granite in my slippers, and I could hardly keep my hands out of my sleeves long enough to flip fried eggs.

But, for one instant, it was suddenly so much colder. Deeper than bone-cold, somehow. Deeper than most colds I had felt in my life. It was like, for a moment, someone had dunked my soul in ice water.

I drew in a breath, and by the time I released the mysterious cold was gone.

I shrugged it off, forgot about it. Blamed it on bad sleep or lack of coffee or some other bad excuse.

That was when they started coming around.

Fast-forward a month. I had gone out to pick up the paper, and two unfamiliar women were getting out of a car across the street.

I studied them carefully. There was something about the way they carried themselves which set off an alarm bell.

“Hey there,” I said.

The scrawny woman slammed her car door and whirled to face me. There was a flash of recognition, I could have sworn, but it faded quickly.

I tapped the paper against my open palm a few times. I don’t know why I had bothered to open my mouth at all, honestly. “You, uh… you new around here?”

“We’re, uh…” she adjusted the waist of her pants while trying not to make eye contact. “We’re here to see Kelly.”

“Kelly?” I echoed. I had never bothered to learn our neighbor’s name, it seemed.

The woman cleared her throat nervously.

“Well, sure!” The second woman jumped in. “We’re here to check on her pregnancy, don’cha know?”

“Pregnancy?”

The second woman nodded emphatically. “Yeah, yeah. Early stages.”

“Are you…” I looked them up and down. “Are you doctors or something?”

“I’m her midwife,” the first woman said. “Jody.”

The second woman looked at her strangely. “Th-that’s right. And I’ll be her doula, Donna. Donna the Doula!” She laughed a strained laugh.

I nodded. “Right. So I’ll be seeing you around, then?”

“You betcha!” Donna replied with a smile.

~~~~~

“What do you think, Dean?” Jody looked to me expectantly. “Is it time yet?”

Broken out of my reminiscences, I glanced quickly at my watch, then up at the rapidly darkening sky. It didn’t seem like twilight as much as an oncoming storm. Despite it, the light behind the lowering clouds was turning orange.

I breathed in deeply. It sure smelled like rain. “Yeah. Let’s do it.”

Donna gave one last kind smile to the boy in the car and started towards the center of the crossroads. Jody and I joined her, and all three of us helped to dig out the tight-packed dirt beneath our spray paint.

I pulled the tin out of my back pocket, gave it a final inspection, and dropped it in the hole.

Jody pushed the dirt back over our treasure and stepped back.

We stood like this, in a tight circle around the center of the crossroads, for about a minute. I hadn’t known them very long at all in the grand scheme of things-- about a year. Yet here we were, prepared to sell our collective souls to save a boy we had known for even less time.

The wind picked up.

“Oh!” Donna braced herself against the sudden gale.

In the distance, lightning struck. The thunder rumbled slowly over the open plains.

The electricity in the air brought back more memories. Just a few weeks ago, when I had heard the screams coming from Kelly’s house and rushed in to defend her. When I had found Jody and Donna and that blinding white light…

And then Jack.

~~~~~

The door burst inward at the third strike of my shoulder, but the sound of splintering wood was barely a whisper against the screams of the woman inside.

“Kelly!” I shouted. “Kelly, I’m comin’ for ya!”

I stampeded through the house and towards the stairs. The cries of agony guided me, as did some unpleasant smells and some sort of faint but bizarre light. As I pounded up the staircase to the second floor, I could hear other voices.

“Jesus, is that that guy from across the street?” one complained through panting breaths. “Donna, go see what’s going on!”

“On it,” the second one replied.

Donna appeared in the doorway just as I reached the top of the stairs. She was covered in sweat and some other mystery fluids, blond hair plastered to the sides of her face. She painted on a quick false smile and pointed at me in playful confusion.

“Dean, right? From across the street?”

“What in the fuck is going on in here?” I demanded.

Donna’s smile held firm, even through the practically inhuman screaming. “Oh… the miracles of birth, you know!”

I took a menacing step toward her. Donna was a solid woman, but I still had a whole head on her. “You’d better let me take a look at what’s going on in there.”

“Eugh!” Donna actually pushed me back a bit.

“Not like--” I growled to myself. “Just move!”

I pushed her to the side and stormed into the room. 

Kelly Kline was propped up in her bed, her legs spread, a sheet draped over them for privacy. Although she was awake, I doubt she could comprehend what was going on around her. Jody, looking about as disheveled as Donna, was kneeling on the floor between Kelly’s legs. The purest and brightest white light I have ever seen poured forth from under the sheet, throwing harsh shadows over the whole room and illuminating every nook and cranny of Jody’s face.

She muttered something to herself after spotting me, then shouted “I do not have the fucking time for this!”

Donna appeared at the door. “I’m sorry, Jody, I--”

“You’d better make the goddamn time!” I replied, kneeling beside her. “You have no idea what you’re dealing with!”

Jody scoffed. “I think I have a better idea than you do!”

“Does that look normal to you?” I asked, gesturing to the light. “Does that look like some run-of-the-mill homebirth, does it even look possible?”

“What makes you think you know better?” Jody asked.

Kelly took a deep breath, and let out a roar of pain. Behind the human sound of agony, there was another sound: a shrieking that was more felt than heard, that could have shattered windows and blown up transformers at a greater strength.

My eyes widened. I recognized that sound. “This baby’s a fuckin’ angel!”

Donna grit her teeth. “Well, shoot, maybe you do know what you’re talking about.”

~~~~~

“How long are we supposed to be waiting, exactly?” Jody asked.

“Not long.” I promised.

The wind was now a constant dull roar. It started to rain, just gently.

I heard the window on the Impala roll down. “Hey, Dean?”

“Jack, just stay in the car!” I shouted.

“Yeah, but--”

“I said stay in the car!”

Donna made quick and sympathetic eye contact with Jack. He rolled the window back up.

Jody drew back her now damp fringes of hair. “Dean, are you sure that--”

There was another lightning strike, this one much closer than the last. The three of us jumped.

The rain had ceased completely, but not in any way I could understand. It was like someone had slapped a lid over us-- I could still hear the rain, but it was so far away and canned that it seemed unreal.

“Hello, Dean.”

I jumped again, moved to face the voice.

There was… it’s hard to explain. It was one person, but also somehow three. They seemed to all be occupying exactly the same space, moving at the same rate, speaking in unison. But there were three of them, I was certain.

“Jody,” said the second one.

“Donna,” said the third.

I shaded my eyes against the setting sun, as if this would somehow help me figure out what I was looking at. 

She was-- well, to be frank, she was very plain. Even as I did my best to study her and pick out some feature of note, she seemed to elude definition. She was wearing a plain dress the color of wheat. She didn’t have any hair, but this honestly didn’t strike me as strange. Her skin tone was... ambiguous. In the setting sun, it seemed to be more flamingly orange than anything else. Although, as I tried to pin her down, I could see that her skin held undertones of purple and yellow. Could it be that her skin was actually the color of sunset?

Jody and Donna were silent. I tried to start a sentence, but failed.

“There aren’t any demons available for this at the moment,” she said. She was hard to look at for too long, or directly at for any length of time at all. “I’m sure you understand why.”

Of course. Without the actual rewards of promotions and… I mean, honestly, I don’t know what else. But your average demon probably isn’t jumping at the opportunity to perform outrageous trades if the souls don’t get ‘em shit anymore. It’s not like the things people ask for are easy.

But then--

“Who are you?” I asked.

She laughed, but not a laugh that I could hear. It was more of a sudden shimmer and flicker of her entire form. “An excellent question, Dean. I’m surprised you haven’t guessed.”

I shook my head. “I guess I… Well, I guess I’m not up on my, uh…” I couldn’t even begin to place what she could have been. A higher demon? An angel? Some sort of mythical beast? A spirit?

“Your mythology?” she finished for me. “The Greeks spoke of me from time to time. As did the Romans, by a different name.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Is that right? Yeah, I think I skipped class the day we went over--”

“Hecate,” Donna murmured.

I turned to look over my shoulder at her. “Gesundheit.”

“No, Dean.” She rolled her eyes. “This is the Goddess Hecate. She rules over magick, and crossroads.”

We quieted as the realization suck in. This was an actual Goddess-- a being with immense power that I really couldn’t wrap my head around. Questions began to bubble up in my mind, but I didn’t have time to ask any of them before she began to speak again.

“That’s right, Donna,” she said. Her voice somehow sounded like moonlight on water. I couldn’t help but notice she also had a bit of a Southern drawl. “And I’ve been watching your little friend since he was born.”

She raised her arm very slowly and pointed to Jack, who had stopped watching his phone and seemed to be trying to read lips to follow the encounter. He didn’t appear to be having any trouble at all looking directly into Hecate’s eyes.

“You’ve been watching him?” I repeated. “Why?”

Hecate lowered her arm. I could see one of her forms shifting to the front, a warm and matronly person who honestly looked a bit like Donna. “As a Nephilim, he falls under my domain. He is a being caught between two worlds: that of humans, and that of angels.”

“So then you know what’s been happening to him, right?” Jody stepped forward.

Hecate cocked her head. “I’m afraid I’m not sure what you are referring to.”

“The assassins?” I prompted. “There’s people out to kill this kid. Been trying for a few months now.”

“Ah.” Hecate nodded. “In that case, yes. I have taken notice.”

“You know…” Donna clenched her fist. “And you haven’t done anything?”

“Do not assume to know what I have done with regards to the child,” she said, her tone dark. Another form was coming forward, this one sharper and angier. “He is not the only being under my watch. I do everything I can.”

I winced. That was sort of the opposite of what I wanted to hear.

“Oh…” Hecate looked at me, shifting back to the motherly form. “You asked for me because you want to keep him safe.”

We all looked down.

“Yes, I should have seen this sooner.” She looked at each of us in turn, and it was like feeling someone sift through a filing cabinet of your memories. As she thumbed through my own mind, I saw glimpses not just of Jack but of Sam.

I saw how I had tousled their hair, how I had taught them jokes and games, shown them my favorite movies and songs. I saw anger and frustration at the stupid things they did, I saw warmth and affection when they tried to impress me. I felt the all-encompassing fear that something would happen to one of them, that I wouldn’t be able to save them.

I felt failure with Sam. But I felt hope for Jack.

Hecate released me, and began to browse the minds of Jody and Donna. Just watching their faces, I could see that they were experiencing much the same thing. Jody’s face was empty by the time Hecate was done. Donna was crying.

Hecate was quiet for a moment, then said “All three of you wish this, don’t you?”

We couldn’t even find the words to respond.

“You just want to see him safe?”

“Well, y’see…” Donna wiped the tears from her cheek with the back of her hand. “His mother… she didn’t survive the birth. But she loved him so much and we just-- well, we just--”

“We want to honor her memory,” Jody finished.

Hecate paused, her form shifting to a much younger woman now. She held this for a moment, then the mother, then the old woman, and finally fell back into all three at once.

She nodded. “I see.”

“Could you even do anything?” I asked. “If we gave you our souls? Is there anything you could do that you haven’t done already?”

Hecate sighed, a sound like the wind rustling the leaves of a thousand trees. “It isn’t a problem of ability as much as… domain. Jack is not entirely within my domain. His life and death are not up to me. I can only help him navigate the world as a transitional being, I cannot keep him from a death that has already been decided.”

A silence fell over us. The rain was still beating on the top of whatever magic box Hecate had put us under. I was starting to feel a little bit like bug trapped in an upside-down glass.

“So then… what can you do?” Donna asked.

Hecate stood very still. I could see her forms shifting and flickering very quickly, as the light from her skin slowly faded. She was very deep in thought, I think.

Jody looked at me for guidance, but I couldn’t do anything more than shrug.

“I can offer--” Hecate began, though she quickly cut herself off. She started again, carefully. Firmly. “I can offer… greater guidance. Whether or not that greater guidance leads to greater protection would be largely up to him.”

I looked back at Jack, who had the shadow of a smile on his face.

“However,” she began again, “as I have said, I have many other beings to watch over. If I were to give more of my time to Jack, then someone would need to make up for it.”

I blinked. “Someone? As in… another God?”

“I think a more apt trade might be someone like the three-- well, I suppose the four of you.” She folded her hands neatly behind her back and looked at us. “Isn’t that how these trades normally work? I have no need of your souls, of course, but perhaps swearing service is similar enough.”

We stood, frozen, still doing our best to catch up. The rain pattered on the top of the box. The sun was nearly gone, and I could see the moon rising behind Hecate. Stangely, there seemed to be three.

“I don’t understand,” Jody said. “What would we be doing?”

Hecate cleared her throat. “Should you agree to my terms, you would become my--what’s the human word?--my paladins, I suppose. I would give you the tools you need, and you would agree to guide and to protect beings caught between worlds or stages in their lives at the cost of your own. That may be young hunters such as yourselves, or it may be the monsters you once sought to destroy. In return, I would give Jack all I can offer him.”

Silence fell once again.

“You want all of us?” Donna asked.

Hecate nodded. “Yes. All of you.”

“And we would keep our souls?” I asked.

“I have no need of them.” Hecate replied.

I sighed and raked one hand through my hair. “Jesus, this is nuts…”

Hecate smiled. “I don’t think it is any less believable than the things you have already seen.”

I shook my head, chuckled in disbelief. “Guess that’s true.”

“I cannot be here much longer, so please do your best to come to a decision,” Hecate said. “Speak amongst yourselves if you must.”

Hecate’s form seemed to retreat, and it was as if we had privacy.

Jody drew her lip into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully for a moment. “Honestly, I think I’m on board.”

We looked at her, silently prompting more.

“Well, I just…” Jody sighed. “I don’t exactly have anyone or anything else to do with myself. I feel like you guys, and-and Jack… I don’t owe anyone to anything but you right now.”

Donna nodded. “I’d agree there. I was done with my husband--well, my ex-husband--as soon as I became a hunter. I can’t think of a better cause to dedicate myself to. Always said I wanted to help people, y’know?”

I nodded slowly. I couldn’t keep myself focused on the people in front of me, just kept looking past them at the landscape beyond. The sun had set over the tall grass, and the sky was dark with storm clouds. The wind rustled the grasses in neat little patches; it looked like a light passing over the fields.

On the one hand, Jack was a relatively new person in my life. I had known him for a few months now. It was dumb--no, it was insane--to throw away a comfortable, stable relationship for this… this stranger.

On the other hand, though… was my relationship that stable? In all the memories hecate had shown me, none of them were of Ben. None of them of Lisa. Maybe Lisa just made me feel normal, and I liked pretending to be normal.

Was I even happy?

Donna put a hand on my shoulder and broke me out of my musings. “Dean, I understand you not wanting to leave your family. If you can’t do this, then maybe Jody and I--”

“No.” I put a hand over Donna’s and looked past her to the Impala. 

There had been a time, not long ago at all in the grand scheme of things, when that car had practically been my family. It held everyone and everything I loved, it took me everywhere I needed to be, it even gave me protection when I needed it. 

It didn’t take much imagination to see Sam, bored and hungry, sitting in the passenger seat, waiting for me to get back from a convenience store run. Or Sam, young and grumpy, arms crossed in the backseat while his dad handled things for him.

And now it was Jack. It was Jack in the backseat, watching with wide-eyed and innocent, wondering why such horrible people and monsters were out to kill him. It was Jack waiting for someone to help him. 

Dad had given up on Sam. But I wasn’t about to give up on Jack.

I guess I should have had some sort of doubt, but Lisa and Ben had always felt temporary anyway. Something about Jack was… permanent.

“Don’t be stupid, Donna,” I said. “This is my family.”

Hecate’s form steadied to the older woman. “I see. If you have all decided, then?”

Jody locked eyes with me. “Yes.”

Donna nodded, eyes closed. “Yes.”

“Yes,” I agreed.

Hecate reached down and lifted the hem of her floor-length gown very slightly. She was wearing sandals laced halfway up her calves, and into her right sandal she had tucked what looked to be a dagger made of pure sunlight. She withdrew the dagger, and we shielded our eyes against its light.

“Kneel before me, Dean Winchester.”

I hesitated. My mind was struggling to find something wrong with what I was doing. It couldn’t possibly be a fair trade, it couldn’t possibly be okay to just give away my life to a kid and a couple of strangers. I had to be making a mistake.

But there was a much more primal part of me which sent me down onto one knee.

I bowed my head, elbows resting on my worn denim jeans. The dagger hummed steadily and brightly as Hecate lowered it on my right shoulder, then onto my left.

“Rise, Paladin Winchester.”

I did as she asked. She looked… different, now. Her image was steadied, and her form somehow made more sense.

I assume she did the same for the others, but I’d have to admit I wasn’t listening. I turned to the Impala and just looked at Jack. He stared back at me in wonder and confusion, hoping against hope that this was good news. That the bad people would go away and he would be safe.

It would never be that simple. But I gave him a thumbs-up.


End file.
